Jacques Villere

Jacques Villere (28 April 1761-7 March 1830) was Governor of Louisiana from 16 December 1816 to 18 December 1820, succeeding William C.C. Claiborne and preceding Thomas B. Robertson.

Biography
Jacques Villere was born on the La Providence plantation of French Louisiana (now Kenner, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana) on 28 April 1761, the son of a French Navy official who was executed by Spain after the Louisiana Rebellion of 1768. Villere decided to join the French Army and spend two years as a student in France, and he served in Saint-Domingue as an artillery lieutenant. After the Louisiana Purchase, Villere entered the US Army's territorial militia, commanding the 1st Militia Division at the 1812 Battle of New Orlenas as a Major-General. He helped in drafting Louisiana's first state constitution and won the 1816 gubernatorial election as a Democratic-Republican Party candidate, and he provided bankruptcy protection for debtors, reduced state debt, and made killing by duelling a capital crime. He retired to his family's St. Bernard Parish sugar plantation, and he died in 1830 while preparing to run for governor again.